Here is a radical idea. Edward Berger in Arizona proposes that “reformers” should pursue the same education for “other people’s children” that they want for their own children. Imagine that!
Archives for the month of: June, 2013
Here the Reverend John Thomas eloquently refutes the Chicago Tribune’s editorial support for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s heartless decision to close dozens of neighborhood schools.
The Tribune on one hand praises the teachers who saved the lives of their students. But then condemns the teachers of Chicago for refusing to accept the closure of their schools and just leave quietly.
Here is an excerpt:
“Unlike the teachers in Moore, Chicago teachers’ schools are not gone because of some capricious act of nature. They are gone because of decades of very deliberate decisions by public officials, corporate interests and ordinary citizens that have eviscerated the neighborhoods of Chicago, displacing people with the demolition of public housing, gutting communities with foreclosures and the elimination of jobs. The schools are gone because they have been replaced by charter schools, the darlings of politically well-connected school reformers making a profit on tax money while public officials eliminate the inconvenience of teachers unions. The schools are gone because poor African Americans and Hispanics in Chicago are disenfranchised by school governance that is appointed by the mayor with limited accountability to the communities. The schools are gone because public funding in this country remains tied to real estate taxes that benefit wealthy suburbs at the expense of the urban core. The schools are gone because years of school reforms imposed from the latest outside savior have left front line teachers abused and demoralized and their students underachieving. And the schools are gone because white flight that began decades ago has left the cities brown and black and poor.”
I try to give voice to people of differing views. In this case, an educator left a comment and takes issue with those who think the Common Core is too demanding. What do you think?
As a parent, educator and scholar of educational policies and theories, I alarm at many of the comments that suggest CCSS are detrimental to our children. Those who are skeptical I invite you to study the worlds top performing educational systems. I also invite you to keep in mind that our children do not know what they can’t do until we (adults) tell them.
As a school administrator I have heard many say what is developmentally to “difficult” for children. As a rebuttal, I show them clips of my now two year old child who can read at a first grade level, write her first name, and apply knowledge acquired in her classroom setting to everyday experiences. She is not of exceptional intelligence, she is a product of “ceiling proof instruction” and a joint effort between parents and teacher.
I am hard pressed to believe thinking critically and mastery of skills beyond rote memorization are detrimental to our children.
Uninformed educators who are limited to their own pedagogy and fail to exam education on a universal level are far more detrimental to our children.
Let’s stop putting our children in a box of limits.
As thousands of activists plan to rally in Albany against the stat’s heavy reliance on standardized testing on June 8, many parents and educators are speaking out against Pearson’s field tests. The testing corporation is trying out questions in the state’s classrooms that might be used on future tests, but opponents say “enough is enough.” The students recently completed two weeks of grueling state tests.
One reward of opening the link is that you get to see a picture of Peter DeWitt, one of the state’s best principals and an outspoken opponent of high-stakes testing. DeWitt was recently the target of an effort by the State Education Department to intimidate him. He is one of my heroes. For he steadfast defense of children, he certainly belongs on the honor roll. He is a champion of children, a champion of public education, and a champion of ethics in education,
Here is an article written for business people.
It is called “8 Surefire Ways to Demotivate Your Employees.”
It appears on the website of the National Federation of Independent Business.
Read it and think how these principles apply to the corporate education reform movement.
Corporate reformers seem to practice every one of these rules and they are accomplishing their goal.
Julie Underwood, dean of the school of education at the University of Wisconsin, has been watching ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and warns that their agenda includes the elimination of local school boards.
School boards are a basic democratic institution. Some 95% are elected. They hire and fire superintendents and set each district’s policy goals. Most people would see them as an expression of local control, a place where citizens may voice their views.
But ALEC has a radical agenda of privatization, and the school boards get in the way. ALEC would like to see more vouchers and charters, and the creation of unelected state boards that can override local decision-making.
The Rhode Island state board of education will vote today on whether to renew Deborah Gist’s contract as State Commissioner of Education.
It seems likely she will be reappointed since Governor Lincoln Chafee favors her, as does the new chair of the state board.
Rhode Island teachers don’t like her.
In a poll, 85% said they opposed her reappointment.
Rhode Island students have opposed Gist’s insistence on high-stakes testing, especially her use of a standardized test (NECAP) as a requirement for high school graduation.
For the Secretary of Education to inject himself into state or local politics is unusual, though not for Arne Duncan.
When mayoral control in New York City was up for renewal before the state legislature in New York in 2009, Duncan called a major civic group and urged it not to propose that members of the central board serve for a set term, with a measure of independence; he agreed with Mayor Bloomberg that board members appointed by the mayor should serve at the pleasure of the mayor.
Duncan succeeded in stopping that small-gauge effort to create a semblance of checks and balances in New York City.
Curious alliances these days: Gist is a member of Jeb Bush’s ultra-conservative Chiefs for Change, and she has the support of Duncan and charter advocates, but not the teachers she leads or the activist students in the public schools.
This website was created by teachers for teachers.
It alerted me to Michael Weston’s firing by his principal in Hillsborough Country, Florida.
Teacher Mike Weston is running for school board.
He teaches math at Freedom High in Hillsborough County, Florida.
That is, he used to teach math at Freedom High.
He was fired by his principal.
Freedom High doesn’t think highly of Weston’s freedom of speech.
So he is now free to look for a job elsewhere.
Needless to say, he speaks out on education issues.
That’s what you do when you run for office.
His principal decided not to retain him.
The district upheld his decision.
Says the article, “Weston’s activism began more than a year ago, after a Newsome High School teacher challenged the Gates-funded evaluation system called Empowering Effective Teachers.
“Weston also was outspoken about problems in exceptional student education that were brought to light by the deaths of two students in 2012.
“A frequent speaker at board meetings, he also has complained about a lack of opportunities for students who are not on track to attend college.
“Given the high profile of Weston’s case, Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins, an attorney and executive director of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association, took the unusual step of representing him.
“I certainly think we made a good case on Michael’s behalf, and I disagree with the outcome,” Baxter-Jenkins said.
A third-grade class of children in upstate New York were upset by the Common Core exams.
Their teacher and principal encouraged them to write to the Governor.
Many complained that they didn’t have enough time to finish.
One wrote, “”I know the governor wants us to be ‘college ready,’ but we are only in third grade for heaven sakes.”
Out of the mouths of babes, more wisdom than one hears from the New York State Education Department.
You can find their bureaucratic responses to the children at the end of the article.
We do want our third graders to be college and career ready, don’t we?
Diane Ravitch's blog 